I Need You
by Kristen325
Summary: It's been 6 years since Chihiro last saw Haku. One day she meets his apprentice who tells her that everyone in the spirit world is in a lot of trouble. Chihiro has no choice but to go back a help her friends, but this time she'll have more help.
1. A Little Black Cat

**Enjoy! :D**

I was 10 that day when everything happened. I had know Kohaku before I was 10 but we had both forgotten. He had promised me that we would see eachother again, but that was 6 years ago. That's right, now I'm 16, and where's Kohaku?

.....Still Gone......

I watched TV as I ate breakfast that morning, nothing very interesting was on so I just put on the news. After I finished eating I yelled to my parents, "I'm leaving now! Bye!"

It was summer vacation which meant I didn't have to go to school, something that I was grateful for. I ran out the back door of our house and into the woods behind our house. I stopped when I was about 5 minutes into the woods. I scanned the ground for what I was looking for. There it was, the small statue Saiomi and I had used to help us find our cave.

You might think I'm too old to have a secret cave with my best friend but I can't help it. I walk to my left for a while then I climb over the large mound of rocks. Once I get over to the other side I crouch down and roll away a huge stone.

The fact that the stone was in place means that Saiomi musn't have been able to come today. That fact worries me a bit because the only other place she would be is at her home. That might not sound bad to you but when you live with an abusive family like Saiomi does the word home isn't very comforting. That's why me and Saimoi made an agreement, this cave would be our home.

I go inside and sit against the wall. Without Saiomi with me I feel sort of lonely. Saiomi is one year older than me but she is in my grade at school because one year she missed a lot of school because a bad injury she had gotten from her brother. Because of that Saiomi got held back a grade.

It's bad enough that Saiomi's parents mistreat her, but what it even worse it that while they mistreat her they treat her older brother like a king. Most people would hate their older brother if they were in that situation but Saiomi really cares about him.

The injury was just a mistake, Saiomi's brother, Luke, really cares about her a lot. Without Luke in the picture Saiomi probably would've been treated a whole lot worse than she has been.

Saiomi is shy so she doesn't have many friends and she have issues trusting people because of her family at home. When we met we just sort of knew that we would be best friends, and that's what happened.

When I first moved here everyone was friendly, I was of course was polite back but didn't really want a lot of the other people as friends. To me a friend isn't someone that you gossip and say bad things about behind their back. Saiomi and I completely understand that, but a lot of girls at my school don't.

Unlike me, Saiomi likes the cave but not the woods around it, so I decided to take this chance and go exploring. I rolled the stone back in front of the cave and set off. I didn't have a plan of where I was going, I was sort of just walking around.

A noise from a bush behind me made me stop. I turned around yet I saw nothing there. Walking again I heard the noise for a second time, my heart started pounding loudly. All the legends and scary stories people told about the woods started going through my head.

Cautiously I crept over to the bush. Suddenly a black cat leapt out making me scream. Next thing I knew in place of the cat stood a young girl, she looked about 7 years old.

"Chihiro w- we need your help." The girl spoke to me with her head bowed down respectively.

I rubbed my eyes wondering if I was dreaming, I usually did have weird dreams. When I looked up she was still standing there so I pinched myself. The pinch hurt so I guess I wasn't dreaming afterall.

"Who needs my help? And who are you even?"

"I'm Kin, Haku's apprentice. There's trouble in the spirit world, Haku has gone missing and... well a lot of bad stuff has been happening. I need your help. Everyone is in trouble, Haku, Yubaba, Zeniba, Lin and a lot of others. I barely managed to escape."

That's when I realized that she was bleeding. She has a long cut across her cheek and her eyes were brimming with tears.

How could I be able to help her? She had mentioned Kohaku was in trouble but I had no way to save him. Now that Kohaku had been brought up I desperately wanted to see him.

"Please Chihiro you're my last hope! Haku told me about you before and I remembered so I came to see if you could help me." The tears Kin had been holding back came rolling down her cheeks.

Not wanting to disappoint her I thought for a minute.

"How about you come to my house and we put some medicine on your cut. Then we can talk about all this."

She looked up at me a nodded. I could see the hope on her face and I knew I would feel horrible when I had to tell her there was nothing I could possibly do.

**Hope you liked it. Please review and favorite! :) **


	2. Getting Ready to Leave

**Thanks for the review ****I am the Wind Mizuki Kay. :)**

I put medicine on Kin's cut and made sure she had no other injuries. Now there was nothing else to do that would delay telling her that I couldn't help.

"Listen Kin..."

Kin looked up at me while sipping on the hot chocolate I had given her.

"I really want to help you but there's really nothing I can do. I'm just a normal human, I have no way of saving everyone."

A small giggle escaped from Kin. "That's a funny joke, but really what did you want to tell me?"

I looked at Kin wondering if she had hit her head before I found her. "I'm not joking Kin!"

Kin looked at me surprised. "You mean Haku never told you?"

"Told me what?"

"Of course your not just a normal human. Everyone in the spirit world knows that. You have your own type of powers. You might even be able to be turn into an animal like me and Haku. I guess he kept it from you so you could live a normal life once you got back to your world."

I smiled knowing that Kohaku wanted me to be happy, _but still, _I thought to myself, _meeting a girl who can turn into a black cat and then having her tell me I have to rescue a whole world, isn't exactly that normal._

"Are you sure I have powers and you're not confusing me with someone else?"

Kin nodded enjoying her drink.

"So what kind?" I asked her.

"What kind of what?"

"What kind of powers do I have?" It seemed like Kin was easily distracted since she was now staring outside my window at a bird with a blank expression on her face.

"How am I suposed to know? They're your powers, they'll be pretty much anything you want them to be as long as you believe in yourself. So-"

Kin was interupted by a knock on the front door. "I'll be right back." I told her leaving the room to go answer the door. I opened up the door to see Saiomi standing there.

"Saiomi what happened!" Saiomi had a cut on her hand that was dripping blood.

She smiled at me. "Nothing I swear, I'm just clumsy. My parents are gone and they told me to clean the house while they're away but I cut myself on a knife. Then I realized that we don't have any more medicine, do you have any I can use?"

"Of course," I opened the door the rest of the way so she could come in. I hadn't planned on Saiomi seeing Kin, but then again my plans never really worked out how I expected.

Kin bounded up to Saiomi and took her hand with the cut. Kin gently held Saiomi's hand in her own. A second later she dropped her hand, "see now it's all better." Kin was right, Saiomi's hand was completely healed.

Saiomi looked down at her hand with wide eyes. I looked at Kin trying to figure out why she had decided to come out, instead of making eye contact with me she was looking at Saiomi.

"You're Chihiro's best friend right?"

Saiomi nodded not bothering to ask how she knew.

"Chihiro I think she should come with us when we leave. Speaking of leaving we really should go as soon as possible."

Saiomi looked like she was close to panicking. "Wait you're leaving?"

I looked at my friend unsure how to explain. "Well yeah but not for long, I have to do something... and um-- well it's not quite a place in the world and uhhhhhh..."

Kin took pity on me and began to explain everything to Saiomi.

* * *

Saiomi looked at Kin. "So you're telling me you want me to come along too, how come?"

I was surprised how well Saiomi had taken in everything Kin said. For someone who had issues trusting people she seemed to believe Kin almost right away.

Kin looked from Saiomi to me then back at Saiomi again, "well Chihiro needs to really believe in herself if she's going to be able to save everyone and you being there would really help a lot I think."

Saiomi looked at me and smiled. "Well then I'll go. I want to be able to help Chihiro save her friends."

I hadn't expected her to agree to come along. "Are you really sure, it might be dangerous."

Saiomi nodded, "of course I'm sure. I'm strong from everything that goes on, a little danger isn't enough to scare me away."

I smiled wondering if I really deserved such a good friend as Saiomi.

Kin cleared her throat and we both looked at her. "Then it's settled we'll leave tonight."

Those words made me realize how fast everything was really happening.

**Enjoy! Here's a little foreshadowing for everyone, when they get ready to leave something will accidently happen and well.... I don't want to give away the rest! :)**


	3. Arriving

**Thanks for the review Kriala Seun -Lost Love-! :)**

We were sitting on my living room floor in a circle. Being the coward I sometimes am, instead of calling my parents to attempt to explain what was going on I had left a note. In the note I also told them to tell Saiomi's parents that she was okay, not that they'd be too worried.

Kin had been silent claiming she had to concentrate and she had warned us paticulary about messing up her concentration.

"I'm not sure I'll be able to get us to the world quickly, it might take a while. The technique is hard to do with one person. Yet alone two. Lucky I have a great master like Haku."

Kin sat quietly concentrating, she hadn't even moved the whole time which had surprised me. She seemed like the type that had trouble sitting still, but I guess we can do anything when we really need to.

So far everything was going according to plan. I was worrying a little that my parents might get home before we were gone which would cause a lot of trouble explaining things.

Besides the worrying, Saiomi and I just sat there. What no one had planned on was another person accidently getting dragged along with us.

The exact moment Kin's concentration peaked and was high enough, was the exact moment Luke walked through the front door. Apparently fate had some plan we had yet to recognize.

With a startled cry all 4 of us were traveling to Kin's world. There was no way to possibly describe how we got there, no words seemed to sum it up correctly.

I should have thought about someone coming in the front door before but I hadn't, now I wanted to kick myself. Luke and Saiomi have permisson to just come in our house whenever they want to as long as someone is home. Saiomi still knocks because she doesn't want to feel like an intruder but Luke stopped bothering long ago.

Somehow Kin had managed to get us all here safely though.

Luke looked at Saiomi. "What's going on? I just came to see if you were okay and I ended up here with you guys. Where is here even?! Who is she even?" Luke pointed at Kin.

Kin opened her mouth to speak, "Well-'' That was as far as she got because she passed out from using too much energy.

**Short I know! Sorry. I just wanted to upload it because I though everyone might think I've stopped writing the story but I haven't, it just might take a while to update! Anyways thanks for reading! :D**


	4. Secret Places

**Enjoy! Thanks for the review ****Tsudoki101! :)**

Kin was completely out which left us pretty helpless since I didn't know how to even use the "powers" she claimed I had.

"What do we do now, we're helpless without her with us!" Saiomi exclaimed.

I picked Kin up grateful she was light then I looked at Saiomi directly in the eyes. "No we're not helpless. Now come on."

I started to walk grateful to hear Saiomi and Luke following me, if they had refused to come I had no idea what I would have done. I wasn't sure where I was exactly going but I was fairly certain I wasn't making a mistake. My instinct told me this was the right way so I listened.

After a minute of silence Luke asked again what was going on. Saiomi quietly told him what was happening. I had to hand it to Saiomi and Luke, they handled weird news extremely well.

I stopped walking for a moment, now I had no idea where to go, the feeling I was going the right way disappeared, but I didn't have the feeling I had went the wrong way either.

"What's wrong Chihiro?" Saiomi asked me nervously while looking around.

The instant she was done talking a loud shriek filled the air. The source of the noise was a giant red bird flying above our heads, judging from the sharp talons and sharp teeth that came out of the beak slightly the bird wasn't friendly.

Spoting us look vulnerable and tasty the bird dive bombed getting closer quickly. It reached us talons outstretched an we all luckily dived out of the way. I hit the ground hard with Kin still in my arms.

The bird had issues turning direction quickly so that bought us a few second of time. Suddenly everything clicked. The feeling about where to go had stopped so maybe I was at the place we were suposed to go. Thinking I replayed in my mind how the ground had sounded when Kin and I had hit the ground. Hollow.

I quickly set Kin down and bent on my knees, there had to be a door or something slightly noticeable. That's when I saw it. A small patch of the ground was slightly lighter than the rest of the area around it.

_We don't have enough time. _Now the bird was right above us.

A loud growl filled the air, unoticed at first behind us was a giant cat. Trying to lighten up the mood Saiomi attempted humor, "lucky us, now we can choose who gets to eat us. Would I rather be torn apart by talons or teeth?"

I smiled weakly but I felt sick. Saiomi was right either way we would be eaten. Even though we should have ran or done something the only thing I could think was why hadn't I seen all these animals my first time here.

Then a very ironic thing happened, the cat proceded to chase off the bird. The bird gave one last defiant shriek before flying off. The cat slowly walked around our group looking over us with it's eyes. The cat looked like it approved of us because it studied us one last time and bounded off.

My heart pounding and feeling weak I opened up the trap door with shaking hands. "Hurry get in, we have no idea what will come after us next if we don't get a move on.''

Saiomi then Luke jumped through the trap door. I gently handed Kin to Luke then jumped down securely closing the door behind me. Convieniately Kin awoke the moment we were safe.

She sat up groggily, "sorry about that. Woah, how did you know to come to this place?"

Three pairs of eyes looked at me. Feeling put on the spot I just shrugged. "Good instinct."

Anyways I want to ask you something. "While you were knocked out a giant bird attacked us." I described the bird briefly to her. Kin's reaction was instantly.

"Oh no. _She _already knows we're here then."

"Hold on Kin, the bird didn't hurt us because a giant cat scared us off. Why didn't the cat make us it's meal?"

A shadow of a smile played across Kin's face. "It means that nature is sided with us. All the animals know that she will lead out world to destruction, even if some humans don't quite realize it yet. They know that you will help them."

"What if I can't though?!"

Kin looked at me like i was being ridiculous, "of course you can!"

"How do you _really _know for sure yet?!"

Interupting what was headed toward an argument Luke asked, "who is the 'she' you were talking about?"

Kin's face immediately turned grave again. "I'll tell you soon we need to be in a safer place first."

She felt along the ground until she found another trapdoor leading farther down. "Okay follow me." she jumped down into it, a few short second later she landed with a small thud.

Being brave Luke jumped into the darkness next then Saiomi after.

I hesistated I always hated jumping or going into something that I didn't know where it would lead.

"You can do it Chihiro." Saiomi called up softly but encouragingly.

Taking a deep breath and I jumped into whatever awaited me.

**Thanks for reading, hoped you liked it!!! :)**


	5. Combination

**Thanks for the review ****Tsudoki101, I get what you mean and being weird is definitely a good thing. :)**

Walking around in darkness while worrying that your enemy might find you isn't as great as it sometimes seems in movies. After I had jumped down Kin told me to lead us until we reached another wall. Maybe she thought if I almost had a heart attack it would reveal my powers.

About ten minutes after jumping into the tunnel and walking it ended abruptly. I leaned against the wall trying to calm down. It took a while but I was calm now.

"Open up the latch above you."

I felt around above my head until my fingers landed on a piece of cold metal. I tried to tug it open but it didn't budge. I felt around more and that's when I felt a lock stopping it from opening.

"How do you open the lock Kin?"

Kin looked at me, "I don't know I've never been in this tunnel before the locks to each door in all the tunnels are different."

"How do you expect us to be able to open it then?" Saiomi asked quietly.

Kin looked at me. "Chihiro can open it."

_Seems like everyone and everything is now constantly depending on me._

"Haku said that you would be able to open it if you thought hard enough."

I had finally decided once we rescued Kohaku I was definitely going to hit him...hard.

I wish I would have suddenly understood the combination to the lock, or be able to guess well enough to open it, like in a movie. I had learned that life really was nothing like movies. Too bad.

It had a been around a few hours already, we weren't exactly sure because we had no way to tell the time, but we had been waiting here long enough for Saiomi and Kin to fall asleep. Now it was only Luke and I awake.

"Do you think it's the next day yet?" Luke asked sitting against the wall.

Everything clicked for me once he said that. "That's it!" My loud voice startled Kin and Saiomi to alertness.

I looked at the combination and put in the month, day, and last two digits of the year I had first arrived here.

Pausing to think happy thoughts that I was right, I tugged down on the lock. It smoothly opened with a small click.

"See I knew you could do it!" Kin smiled at me.

I shot Kin a glare that was suposed to be full of annoyance but she was cute and lovable and hard to be mad at. "Maybe if someone's mentor had passed on better clues this wouldn't have taken so long."

Kin shrugged, "I'm just the escort and messenger settle your irritation with him."

**Short, but I wanted to update soon because I haven't for a while, didn't want people to think I gave up on them. ;) I get so distracted by the new game I found, dragonfable, it's so entertaining, most of the time. :D **


	6. Enemy

**Thanks for the review ****Tsudoki101, yes there is going to be a little something between Chihiro and Luke. ; ) I was wondering if anyone would guess that. **

The light from the new room we were in hurt my eyes causing them to water.

"Awwww Chihiro's crying!" Saiomi teased, getting a playful punch in return.

"Chihiro!" Someone yelled loudly and tackled me into a hug. "I haven't seen you in forever!"

I recognized the person as Lin. "Lin I'm so glad to see you," she smiled. Behind Lin stood Kamaji who waved. Hearing a little squeaking at my feet I looked down. At first I was startled to see the little blak fuzzy shapes then I remembered them from my first time here.

Lin let go, and I sat on the ground. "You guys are just as cute as last time."

_Luke's POV_

_Seeing her sit on the ground delighted by some simple creature, no doubt full of some magic, I felt lonely. Chihiro was here to rescue some guy she had barely spent time with. I was sure I knew her a lot better than this Haku or whatever his name was. Maybe I had gotten dragged here with them for a reason. Maybe fate was giving me a chance to finally make Chihiro fall in love with me. When we were younger she had been so bursting of joy I thought she was the most beautiful thing ever. She had lost some of her sparkle, like everyone did once they start to grow up, but that was life. However to me, she was still the most beautiful thing._

I felt eyes on me I looked up to see Luke looking at me biting his lip. He bit his lip whenever he was deep in thought. I could clearly feel a strong emotion rolling off of Luke, it seemed to be directed at me, but I couldn't quite identify it.

Kin chose that moment to poke me. "Want to hear who you will be facing eventually?"

I looked at her, "yeah, it's about time you explained some of what's going on." By the time I looked up again Luke was done thinking and looking perfectly normal again.

Instead of Kin beginning to explain Kamaji explained.

"A while ago a strong girl named Souzen showed up. From the start Kohaku was leery of her because she had much more strength then she led others to believe. After she had made friends she began to talk about a fallen angel from stories her mother used to tell her, the fallen angel's name was Ukame. She believed that the fallen angel was sent to our world for a reason. She believed the angel was our chance for peace. That was when Kohaku knew that she was going to be a lot of trouble. He didn't think that she herself was bad but he thought that the fallen angel had found a type of way to confuse her and make her believe he was good."

Kin piped up and continued the story from where Kamaji left off, "he did research and this paticular fallen angel wasn't even an angel. He was a rare human with unusual powers to manipulate people. He knew that Souzen was strong and wanted peace and took advantage from her. He also manipulated lots of others but he couldn't quite get some of us to do what he wanted us to do for him. He is keeping quiet and hidden behind the scenes and is making Souzen do his work. He captured Yubaba, Zeniba, Haku, and others because he knew that we were all figuring this out."

To me this seemed more like a fantasy novel, not a real life occurrence. "so why do you think that I'm the one who will be able to stop all this?"

Kin looked at the ground then into my eyes, " in the stories it mentioned someone who would be able to relate to why Ukame does this type of stuff. Somone who had sympathy. It also mentioned some friends. There was more clues but it was in a different language only the person who can defeat him will be able to read. Somehow Haku thought that you were the one."

So there was a twisted, horrible reason Ukame was doing this, and they expected me to be able to relate to that reason? I couldn't think of something bad enough that happened to me to be able to relate to whatever made Ukame feel like he had to do this.

Then a single thought entered my mind. The day I tried my best to forget about and try to pretend it didn't exist.

I had still been 10, I didn't think that some people could really have such a screwed up mind, especially not the caring teachers who took care of us at school. I still had long scars on my arms that would never go away, a scar on my neck, and many more emotional scars.

Just the thought of that day made me feel sick and dizzy. I plopped on the ground and held my head in my hands breathing hard.

No one had known about that day except my parents, the one who caused it, and a few cops. I didn't expect the issue to have to come up but now that it had I knew I was no more prepared to face what had happened 6 years ago, then I had been prepared before.

"Chihiro," Kin sat down next to me, "are you okay?"

I shook my head wishing to be left alone. Kin must have been able to tell my feelings because all else she said was, "your room is down the hallway, the third door."

Shakily I stood up and went to the room. The first thing I did was lay down.

_Oh Kohaku, I wouldn't do this for anyone else but you._

As expected, the tears finally came and I let them. Sometimes crying felt great. I buried my head in the pillow and made myself drift off to sleep.

**Hope you liked it! :D**


	7. Powers

**Enjoy! :D Thanks for the review ****mollehh, NickJ1Fan, and Tsudoki101 (keep analyzing away!) :D !**

I woke up the next day feeling somewhat better. I put a bright smile on my face so the others wouldn't worry. I couldn't spend the day upset, who knew what would happen today.

I stepped out of the room and could smell the strong scent of some food that must have been for breakfast. Saiomi came out of the room next to me at the same moment, "let's get some food!"

I smiled at my friend, greateful that she didn't find the need to mention last night. "Smells good."

Saiomi nodded, "I'm starving," her stomach rumbling at that moment to add emphasis.

The food tasted even better than it had smelled. Saiomi and I ate way more than what we usually eat. Lin was looking at me and Saiomi in amazement once we were done eating. "I have no idea how you could both eat that much."

Saiomi and I looked at eachother and laughed. I started laughing even harder when I thought of all the other stuff that had happened since we became friends. Soon both Saiomi and I were laughing uncontrollably.

Kin who had still been asleep walked into the room, she got one look at us and immediately turned back around, we could hear her mutter something about still being asleep as she walked off.

Finally Saiomi and I were able to stop laughing. Lin, Luke, and Kamaji were still looking at us like they thought we might start bursting out laughing again.

Later that day Kin decided that it was time for me to start training. First we had started off throwing knives at targets, quickly we realized that knives, swords, and many other weapons I attempted to use were not my strong point.

By now I was almost positive Kin had mistaken me for someone else. When I mentioned that she refused to believe it.

After that disastrous attempt she tried to get me to do some form of meditation that would help me grasp my powers. That too was a failure. Now Kin looked like maybe she was wondering if she really had brought the wrong person.

I still wasn't sure that I wanted to be the one to face Ukame, but I couldn't help the feeling that I was weak. Especially since Kin had told me to take a break while she taught Luke , who had caught on immediately, to use a sword.

Even Saiomi had found something she was good at, at the moment she was sitting next to Lin on the ground learning about medicines. Lin had attempted to teach me about the medicines but I couldn't remember the different kinds and kept getting distracted.

One of the coal creature things nuzzled my foot as if it was trying to comfort me. I picked up the the creature, "do you have a name?" Kamaji had told me earlier they could live longer now, and most could even talk.

The creature nodded and squeaked out, "Jelly."

Everyone was so occupied they didn't notice when I went back throught the tunnels to the surface to get some fresh air. I laid on the ground content and a breeze blew softly through the air.

"Jelly do you think Kin is wrong and I don't have any powers?" Jelly had clung onto my shoulder until we were outside, and now he was on the ground next to my head.

I could hear his tiny voice in my ear, "you have powers." For some reason he sounded so sure that I completely believed him.

I relaxed and watched some shapes high up in the sky moving. The shapes moved slowly and with precision, watching them began to make me sleepy. The shapes came closer so that whatever the shapes were, I could see that they were red.

Red. The color jogged soemthing that had happened recently in my memory. "Chihiro the red ones!" Jelly whispered urgently in my ear.

I sat up, the shapes were the red birds that served Souzen. I had barely processed that fact when they landed surrounding me in a circle. There were only 3 but I had no weapon, even though I probably couldn't use it, with me.

"Bad, bad, bad." I could hear Jelly who was on my shoulder once again.

_No kidding. _The first bird dived at me and I barely dodged, then all of them were coming at me at the same time. I got knocked through the air and before I could even hit the ground, a different bird knocked me into another direction.

I landed hard on the ground and let out a gasp. I rolled onto my side and got back up. I could taste my lip bleeding. Tasting my blood in my mouth and the feeling of being defenseless made me react oddly. Instead of becoming scared, I began to feel more confident. My blood rushed through me and I could feel strenght building. I closed my eyes and somehow could hear the birds diving at me. I could even precisely locate where exactly they were coming at me from.

I opened my eyes and jumped up higher than any normal person should be able to. The birds crashed into eachother beneath me and I landed a little past them. I turned around to see them still trying to untangle themselves. I held out my hand and I felt a rush of heat as a sword with flames dancing around it appeared in my hand. Unlike the other swords Kin had me try earlier, this one was perfect.

I swung the sword hard and a rush of fire overcame the birds. I knew I hadn't done it hard enough to kill them, that wasn't my intention, I just wanted to injure them enough to protect myself. It worked.

The birds gave up trying to hurt me and promptly flew away.

"Why would you let them get away!" Kin yelled from behind me. I let the sword disappear and turned around, it was evident that she was furious at me. "You just let Souzen have more allies, who will just try to kill us again later on!"

"You need my help and I'm glad to help but I'm not going to kill anyone or anything. If you don't like the way I do things then I'll go back home."

Kin looked at me frustrated, "so if you don't get killed by the enemies you let escape, and do get to face Ukame, you'll just let him walk off after the fight?"

I was done arguing with her, I knew most people weren't able to see my view on matters like this. "Everyone has some good in them and anyone can change." Without saying another word. I walked off to go back to my room. I was shocked when I saw Jelly still on my shoulder, I had assumed he would have fallen off during the fight.

"Do you think I did the right thing?"

Jelly nodded without hesitating. I hoped Kin would forgive me, we hadn't agreed but I knew her heart was in the right place. Maybe she would understand sometime.

_Luke's POV_

_When I first noticed Chihiro had left I got a horrible, worried feeling that I'd never had before. If something happened to her it would be like my world would be off balence. When I saw her hurt I got more angry than I had ever been before. Because of the anger it took me a while to realize that she had a weird type of sword in her hand. Seeing her as she attacked the birds and then argued with Kin afterwards because she didn't want to kill them I realized how much I really cared about her. When I had first started to like Chiro more than a friend a year ago I wouldn't admit it to myself because Chihiro was Saiomi's best friend, but eventually I had to accept the fact that I was truly in love with her. _

**Hope you liked it! :D**


	8. Lakari

**Thanks fore the review Akatsukifan1 and Akane Koizumi (yeah it's called a love triangle and you'll have to wait to see who she chooses. ;) )!**

I layed on the bed tracing one of the scars on my arm with my finger. I had said to Kin that anyone could change and I really believed that. The person who had gave me the scars had changed and I knew that, but I still wouldn't ever want to see them again. Even if people could change, the things they had done before couldn't always be made up for.

I wondered if I got a chance to see Ukame if I could be able to say something to him that would make him decide to change, I hoped so, because I wouldn't kill him and in that case I might be the one who would end up dead.

I found a book in my room, having nothing else to do I started to read it. By the time I was on page 89 I heard a knock on the door. "Come in," I called without taking my eyes away from the book.

Kin came into the room and sat on the bed. She didn't speak for a while but she eventually did.

"I'm sorry about earlier. Haku told me you are different than others, and I know if he believes you, what you did was probably the right thing. I was worried that you could've gotten killed, I like you a lot Chihiro and would be upset if you got hurt."

I set the book down and hugged her, "it's okay."

_Kohaku called me different than others, hopefully he meant that in a good way._

She hugged me back tightly. Her hug reminded me of a question that I had wanted to ask Kin before.

"Kin do you ever see your parents?"

Almost instantly Kin pulled back from the hug. "I'd rather not explain that, sorry." She gave me a small, almost guilty, smile.

"I guess we all have our own secrets and problems."

She nodded. "Do you think you would be able to use your powers again, even if you wern't in danger?"

I was about to say I had no idea, but I realized that I did know. "I will be able to, but it would help more if I was actually in danger."

She paused thinking, "I guess we don't really have a choice, we need you to be as strong as possible as quickly as possible."

I knew exactly what she was thinking. I was going to have to beat up more birds.

All for the cause of getting stonger quickly, Kin promptly threw me back outside a short 20 minutes later. I sighed as I sat down, being bait wasn't much fun.

Nothing ever happens exactly the same so I shouldn't have expected more birds to come like last time, but I did. Instead a person dropped to the ground in front of me. She wasn't very tall and looked like she was maybe a year older than Kin.

"So you're the one Souzen says we need to be careful of? You don't seem like much at all." This seemed a bit ironic since she was younger and looked even less strong than I did.

From that moment on I never judged anyone on their looks.

Before I could even think to say something back to her, she had performed some weird type of summoning act. Now before me was a gigantic cat like animal that had some resemblence to a lion.

The lion swiped at me with it's front paw and knocked me to the ground. I managed to make my sword appear just as the girl threw a knife at me from behind. The knife bounced off my sword and fell to the ground. While I had been distracted by the lion thing she had been able to sneak up behind me and almost kill me herself. I think I prefered the red birds after all.

"Don't you love how misleading first appearances can be?" She let out a dark laugh. "Remember I'm not your only opponent."

As I turned towards the lion to see if it was about to attack the girl lunged at me with the sword. She was able to give me a large cut going down my leg. Finally I seemed to be warmed up and ready to fight.

When she pulled back with her sword and for a second left herself vulnerable I swung my sword with all my strength and knocked her weapon out of her hand. The weapon landed on the lions paw and it let out a roar.

I flinched feeling bad for a second. The girl jumped back out of my range and made hand gestures quickly, the lion disappeared.

"This will be fun." She hadn't realized that I had figured out her weakness. She had to take time to summon a weapon or ally, that left her defenseless for a moment.

She moved her hands so fast they were a blur, my reactions were much better while I was fighting so I swung the sword and fire rushed at her. That was blocked by a large wall of water she had put in front of her just in time.

The fight went on like this for a while. I noticed that her summoning took longer as she started to tire. I could have used that greatly to my advantage if I wasn't a rookie and wasn't getting tired myself.

Even thought I sometime got close to her with my sword, that made me nervous so I tried to stay farther away and attack with the fire from the sword. It wasn't that my attacks missed or were too slow, because they wern't. It just seemed she had almost no limits to what she could summon and was always able to protect herself just barely.

Once she tried attacking with wind, that ended up bad for both of us. The fire got bigger and out of my control and we both got burnt.

Kin apparently believed in my strength because the whole time she hadn't bothered to check to see what was happening. Eventually while we were both hurt and trying to catch our breath she came out.

She looked surprised to not see a flock of birds with me fighting them. First she looked ouver my injuries then looked at who I had been fighting. Her jaw dropped open. "Lakari?"

The girl, whom Kin had called Lakari also looked just as shocked. Kin took as step forward as if she was going to go to her, but Lakari quickly took a bunch of steps back.

"Not bad for now," she spoke looking at me, "next time our fight will end differently though."

After Lakari left I was going to ask Kin if there was a way I could tell if I had other powers but the look on her face stopped me from asking.

She briskly walked inside, the sweet attitude she had earlier was now replaced with anger and annoyance. I began to think she might be bipolar as I followed her inside.

_Lakari's Pov_

_"I'm sorry I couldn't stop her. She was stronger than I expected." Lakari was kneeling on the floor in front of Souzen. "I told you not to underestimate her!" Souzen yelled. You could hear the slap ring in the room as Lakari held a hand up to her burning cheek. She blinked back the stinging tears, tears just made Souzen madder._

_"Why did you not summon Kaibutsu early on?" Lakari tooked a deep breath and hung her head, " I thought I could handle her on my own and Kaibutsu is hard for even you to control yet alone me." Lakari expected to be yelled at even more but Souzen's eyes got kinder as they occaisionally did. "It's okay go get rest now." Lakari left the room, when she reached the door she turned back, Souzen's eyes were harsh and unforgiving once more. Lakari still smiled. For a moment Souzen had been closer to her normal self, what Lakari was doing wasn't useless, and she wouldn't give up on Souzen either._

**Hope you liked it! Maybe Lakari isn't so bad after all, anyways you'll have to wait and see! :)**


	9. Herbs

**Thanks for the review ****Dreamgirl264! :)**

For the remainder of the day Kin barely talked and seemed very sulky. Saiomi eventually asked what had happened, even with what had gone on, Kin's reaction to Lakari still seemed strange.

I tried cheering Kin up by telling her of stupid things me and Saiomi had done before, but it didn't work. Finally I did the only thing I could think of, I asked her what was wrong.

"Why did you get so grou- uh, upset when you saw Lakari?" I could feel Lin's death stare on my back, she had said to wait it out and eventually Kin would come around and tell us what was wrong.

"Because Lakari used to be my best friend and I thought she was dead for a long time. I'm glad she's alive but now she's working with our enemy and we'll have to fight her. When we were younger she said she would rather die then work for someone who was evil."

I pondered over what Kin had said. "Maybe Lakari isn't working for someone bad."

Kin snapped at me, "I know you think everyone is good but you're wrong, Souzen is evil."

I shook my head, "Nope, you're wrong this time. Souzen isn't the evil one. Ukame is. Maybe Lakari knows Souzen and knows that Souzen wouldn't do those evil things on her own. Maybe she's trying to help Souzen get back to what she was like before Ukame tricked her."

Kin's face lit up, "I hope you're right! I'm sorry everyone for being grouchy." With that said she ran off into her room to do who knows what.

"Geez I think you just do the opposite of what I say." Lin scolded me like I was a little kid. "Well it worked this time so good job."

I smiled. Then I remembered I had wanted to ask Kin if there was a way to see if I had more powers. I walked down the hallway to her room and opened the door. She was sitting at her desk looking intently at a piece of paper.

"What are you doing?"

Kin jumped and quickly covered up the papers. "Geez you scared me, was there somethig you needed?"

I noticed that she hadn't answered my question but I didn't bother to ask again. "Is there a way to see if I have any more powers?"

Kin tapped her chin as she thought. "As a matter of fact there is. Haku showed me once before. Hold on a second." Kin started opening a bunch of books on her desk and began paging through them.

Whenever Kin mentioned Kohaku's name I got a little pain in my heart. I knew he wasn't able to see me now because he had been captured, but what about all the time before he was captured? He never came to see me then either.

Kin now had several books opened to different pages. "Here we go. These are the different herbs we'll need, you should be able to find them in the forest around here."

She got out a stack of paper and redrew each picture and rewrote the description so I wouldn't have to carry a bunch of heavy books. She handed me the papers. "You should go get them now so we can do the ceremony tomorrow."

"Okay." I looked at the drawings and looked at some of the books that were still open. Kin had drew each picture exactly as it was in the book, she would've made a great artist.

Overall I only had to get six herbs. I walked out of Kin's room and back into the kitchen where everyone else was sitting at the table.

"Hey Chihiro, if you're getting herbs do you think if you find any of these you could get a bunch for me? Lin is going to show me how to make more medicines and stuff." Saiomi held up up a few different kinds of plants.

"Sure." I took the plants she held up so I knew what to get.

Kamaji came over and gave me a big bag that had a bunch of different compartments that I could use to seperate the plants so they wouldn't get mixed up.

"Thanks." Holding the drawings and the bag I went down the tunnel and up to the surface.

Today had been a really busy day and it seemed like it should've ended a long time ago, but it was just starting to get dark. The sun was almost done setting so I hurried towards the trees, if I wasted time soon it would be hard to see what I was doing in the dark.

I easily found the herbs Saiomi had asked me to get, however the ones Kin had instructed me to get were another story. I had spent 30 minutes already looking around for the herbs and wandering aimlessy in the dark. At least the moon was out so I could see somewhat.

Finally I found one of the six herbs I was suposed to get. _If it took me that long to find one of them I probably be up half the night. _Right now I defenitely didn't want to be up half the night, I was exhausted.

I jumped as something fuzzy brushed against my ankle. I looked down to see Jelly. "Geez how long have you been with me?"

I picked him up and he jumped from my hand to my shoulder. "I left when you did. I found two more of the herbs you're looking for." He jumped back down and I followed him.

_Wow, I can barely find them myself and I'm outsmarted by a fuzzy piece of coal._

After picking the herbs and putting them in the bag I thought about where to look next.

I heard and owl hoot above me and looked up to see if I could see it. That's when I got a bunch of dripping wet plants on my face. I saw the owl who had dropped them on my face. I wiped the water off of me then looked at the plants, it was one of the herbs I was missing.

Perplexed that the owl would somehow know, I remembered what Kin had said when the big cat had first saved us from the bird. _The animals know you can help them. _

"Thanks," I said feeling odd because I was talking to a owl. With one last hoot it flew off into the night.

I looked at the wet plants, then looked at the description Kin had wrote next to the drawing for that plant. More likely to be found next to water. The other two plants I needed were also more likely to be found near water.

So there had to be water somewhere that the owl had found these ones by, at least thats what made sense since I doubt the plants were wet from owl slobber. That made me wonder could owls even slobber?

I shook my head hard. _Stop getting distracted. _

I walked for a while until I came to a small pond in a clearing. Almost immediately I found the rest of the things I was looking for. Gratefully I headed back to give the plants to Kin.

**Hope you liked it! :D**


	10. Headaches And Confessions

**Enjoy! :D**

"Wake up Chihiro!" Bright light shined in my eyes startling me awake. It was Saiomi with a flashlight she had found somewhere.

"Geez I'm up, try not to blind me."

I walked out into the kitchen and saw Kin sitting there reading a book so big it took up half of the long table.

"Okay I followed all the directions correctly, at least I hope so." She looked at the book then at the cup full of liquid in her hand.

"Sit down and drink this, oaky?"

I sat down across from her. "Okay but what's going to happen once I take it?" From where I was sitting I could smell the scent of the drink and it wasn't appealing.

"Well you're gonna fall asleep and you should have a dream of what your powers are if I made it correctly. You might also have a headache for a while after you wake up."

I noticed how Kin kept saying _if_ she made it correctly, I couldn't help but to ask, "What will happen if you didn't make it correctly?"

"...nothing you need to worry about. Just drink"

Hestitantly I did as Kin told me. Almost as soon as I had finished drinking I got sucked into the dream. The last thing I heard was the sound of the cup falling out of my hands and onto the floor.

_Luke's POV_

_I walked into the kitchen to find something to eat for breakfast. At first I didn't notice anything odd until I saw Chihiro passed out and Kin sitting across from her looking like she was waiting for something. "What happened?" I looked at Kin. She looked at me, "Luke, chill. She's dreaming right now I gave her a potion it's no big deal."_

_I calmed down and felt like an idiot. "Oh well I'm going to uh- go now.." I was almost out of the room when Kin said something to me. "You love her a lot don't you?" I looked at Kin, "yes I do love her a lot." _

Supposedly I would be able to see if I had other types of powers. When I woke up I couldn't even remember the dream at all. Everything in the dream was just a big blur of colors. I tried to sort out the colors and shapes and anything that might of happened but it seemed impossible and just made my head throb even worse.

To add onto all my suffering the headache still wasn't better hours later. "Er- I might have made it a tad bit strong," Kin confessed as she gave me a ice pack, "I tend to make potions not strong enough so I wanted to make it strong enough but as you know it was too strong..."

I could tell Kin felt really bad and that she had tried had to get it exactly right. "You're loads better than I would've been and I think the heacdache is almost gone now." The second part was a lie.

My attempts to make her happier seemed to only work a little. She thought that she must have made it wrong due to the fact the dreams didn't tell me anything and that the headache should have been gone by now.

"Maybe you should get some real sleep." Kin suggested as she herself yawned.

"Yeah I will. You can have that back." I gave back the ice pack.

"Wait Chihiro, I probably shouldn't bring this up but, do you love anyone?" Kin looked at me with a blank expression making it hard to guess what she was thinking.

The question took me by surprise. Now that I had actually been asked I knew that for sure I loved Kohaku. "Yeah, Kohaku."

Kin's blank expression didn't change, "do you love anyone else though, more than a friend or family member?"

Puzzled I mulled over the question. "No, he's the only one I love more than a family member or friend. Why are you bringing this up?"

Kin walked over to the freezer and put back the ice pack. "Just trying to find out things. And I'm going to say this so people don't get hurt later on, you should pay attention to how some people act around you because you're not perceptive of emotions."

"Okay." I said slowly, drawing out the words. I thought about how everyone had acted around me for the past few days and what any of that could have to do with love. I felt like I was missing something obvious but i couldn't quite put my finger on it exactly.

"Well goodnight, sleep well!" Kin went into her room and shut the door, apparently if I couldn't figure out what she was trying to tell me then it was my loss.

**It seemes like along time since I updated. Hope you didn't wait too long. Anyways hope you liked it even though it was short. :D**


	11. Hurt Feelings and Familar Faces

**Thanks for the review ****GLaDOS-2460! :) **

Even after a good night of sleep I still couldn't put my finger on what Kin was trying to tell me. Frustrated I forgot about it eventually.

"Since the potion didn't work," Kin stated downheartedly, "you'll just have to try to get the powers you have as strong as possible, not just you either." She turned to Saiomi, "you can help Lin make medicines for when we get hurt. Luke you're good with a sword so you'll be a big help. Kamaji you have to make Luke a decent sword that's right for him and make Lin and Saiomi throwing knives so they have them."

As Kin went through what we needed to get done I realized we had no idea how many people were under Souzen , actually Ukame's, command besides Lakari. Kin's words brought a tense feeling into the room. We knew we would have to face Souzen and everyone eventually but as the moment grew closer tension rised.

Everyone set to work without talking. I went up to the surface to pratice in the open space. After a while Luke came outside and joined me. We practiced for an hour in silence.

"Chihiro can i talk to you?" Luke suddenly stopped practicing and looked at me.

"Sure." We sat down next to eachother on a rock. Both of us were breathing hard and the cool breeze felt nice. "What's up?"

"This Kohaku person we're trying to recue, do you love him?"

Having this conversation with Luke was a lot different than having it with Kin. "Well we're rescuing others not just Kohaku, but yes I do love him."

"How can you love someone who deserted you for six years!" He looked at me with anger in my eyes.

That's when I knew what Kin had been trying to tell me. I mentally scolded myself for not figuring it out sooner. "I don't know myself, all I know is that I really do love him."

All the anger left Luke as he gave a defeated sigh. I tried to give him a hug but he side stepped me causing me to stumble and almost fall. "I think I'm done practicing for today."

The unsaid words hung heavily in the air around us. Even after he went inside it was still painful to know how much I had hurt him.

_It's his fault for not telling me sooner before his emotions got out of control._

_Well maybe if I hadn't been so stupid and realized what was happening sooner._

My thoughts kept going back and forth between whose fault everything was.

_Why couldn't he like Lin or Kin or some normal girl at home?_

_You can't control who you fall in love with. That's a weak arguement coming from someone who loves another person who deserted them for six years. _

With increased frustration I swung the sword hard.

_Why did things have to be like this?_

Sitting back down I buried my head in my hands. I thought about how much Luke had probably been hurt and a tear fell onto my lap.

_He's just like a brother to me or my best guy friend._

I had no idea how long I sat on the rock doing nothing. I was finally brought to my senses when I heard a voice.

_Life is never easy, but thats what makes it worth living._

Startled I looked around for who had spoken. Seeing no one I concluded I must have imagined hearing the voice. Still, hearing voices in your head was never a good thing.

_You're not imagining things._

My vision faded from the outside world to a type of place that you would only expect to see in dreams. I was still aware that I was sitting on the rock even though my body was at this place.

A person appeared in front of me and in an instant I knew who she was. "Grandma?"

She didn't waste time on greetings, "you're doing the right thing Chi." She smiled as she calle me my nickname. "You have more powers but won't know about them until the time in right. Afterall I had more powers and you inherited them from me."

I looked at her disbelieveing, as far as I knew she had never even talked about anything relating to magic ever.

"I didn't always live in your parents world Chi. Just be strong and do what you know is right and everything will be fine."

Her voice was fading and the place was fading rapidly. With a start I was jolted back to myself.

So I was doing the right thing so far. I took a deep breath a stood up, resuming my practice.

I thought about what my grandmother had said to me. I wondered why she had never mentioned anything when she was alive, or why she didn't stay in this world. Did she leave because she had to take care of my mom? Or was there another reason?

**Hope you liked it! :D**


	12. Kaibutsu

**Thanks for the review ****BebePanda401 (twice!), GLaDOS-24601, and startrektnggirl33(yep Kohaku is going to come in soon.)! :)**

_"__But Souzen-" Lakari protested. _

_"Are you disobeying me Lakari?" Souzen spoke in a menacing voice. _

_"Of course not master," Lakari bowed, "I'll do as you say."_

_Lakari left the room and went down the twists and turns of the dark hallways until she came to the entrance to the dungeons. Bracing herself for the despair she would feel she pushed open the door and started down the steps. As she went past all the cells the prisoners remained quiet except for a light scuffling sound as they moved around. Lakari stopped out the door to one of the prison cells. The boy inside was laying on the matress gazing up at the ceiling._

_Pulling a set of keys out of her pocket Lakari unlocked the cell. "Come on." She ordered as she grabbed the boys arm and pulled him up hastily. She shut the cell door and dragged him along after her. the boy put up no fight._

_"Souzen finally decided to use me as bait? Well it wasn't exactly Souzen's descision."_

_Lakari stopped in her tracks. "Your names Kohaku... yeah I remember now. Souzen said you were the one we had to be most careful of. Anyways what do you mean?"_

_Kohaku looked Lakari in the eyes. "You know how she has been acting different. The only reason you're standing by her is because you want her to go back to herself. Did she ever tell you the story of the angel Ukame?"_

_"Yes. She thought he was the chance for our world to have peace."_

_"Well she was wrong." Lakari opened her mouth to interupt but Kohaku continued. "We don't have much time until she realizes you've been gone too long so just listen."_

_Kohaku carried on speaking quickly. "Ukame isn't a fallen angel. He's a rare type of human who came from an old clan of magical people who could manipulate others. He manipulated Souzen's desire for peace and is using her powers to achieve what he wants. He wants control of this world. He doesn't act rashly because he doesn't want to alert others to what is going on. Chihiro, the girl Souzen sent you to fight the other day, is the only one I believe who can change Ukame and free Souzen again in the process."_

_Lakari thought over what Kohaku had said, "That makes sense what you said about Ukame. Do you really think Chihiro can stop them though? From what I saw before... she's not stronger than me really."_

_"I believe in her." Kohaku said firmly._

_Now that Lakari had found out the truth she didn't want to do what Souzen had ordered her to do. _

_"Don't worry about me, lets hurry before Souzen come gets us herself." _

_At Kohaku's words Lakari made her way quickly back upstairs to the room Souzen was in. _

_"What took so long?" Souzen demanded._

_Fighting the urge to look at Kohaku, Lakari bowed her head, "the prisoner wasn't too happy about coming." She hoped Souzen wouldn't see through her lie. _

_Souzen looked at Lakari as if she could sense the lie, Lakari's heart pounded loudly. "Very well. Get Kaibutsu and go do as you were instructed."_

_"Yes master." Lakari spoke the words quietly._

Since we were all in such a small hide out or house whatever it was, Luke did a good job of avoiding me. Whenever I tried to find him he mysteriously managed to disappear. The weirdness between us made things awkward for Saiomi. She spent her time learning from Lin, trying to get Luke to talk to me again, and giving me looks that clearly showed that she wished I would just be I love with her brother.

Today I was the first one up so I decided to start making breakfast. Usually Lin or Kamaji made breakfast but I decided it was my turn to do it today.

As I flipped over pancakes I winced as I felt like someone was squeezing me from the inside. My legs shook and I gripped onto the table to suport myself. What was happening?

The pain grew worse, gasping I tried to calm down and breathe.

"Chihiro, what's happening?" Luke stood by my side holding me up from falling.

"I- I don't know. Something really bad is going to happen." Another wave of pain shot through me.

"Okay, just hold on."

He sat me down in a chair and left the room.

_It's Kohaku, something is going to happen to him. Also... it feels as something bad is coming._

A naseous and nervous feeling settled in me but most of the pain stopped. I didn't have time to wait for the others to wake up. Jumping up I grabbed the first type of weapon I saw, if I had to use it bad enough maybe I wouldn't be bad at it.

Running through the tunnels my panic grew until I finally reached the surface. Waiting for me there was a sight I hadn't expected.

I dropped to my knees the sick feeling returned ten fold. Standing in front of me was Lakari, next to her was Kohaku who had his hands chained up. Even though I finally got my wish to see Kohaku I couldn't concentrate on him long with the other thing in front of me.

Lakari rested her hand on the _monster _if you could even call it that. Whatever it was I could feel the waves of evil coming off of it. It resembled a gigantic brown dog remotely except it had spikes down its back and on its tail, it's eyes were a deep souless black, and it was enormous.

It gave a loud thundering growl that shook the ground. I could tell that this was what had made me feel so sick earlier. Somehow I could sense the evil.

Finally I tore my eyes away from it. I looked at Kohaku I thought before that he had gotten me in a big mess but that was nothing compared to this time. I felt betrayed.

"I'm sorry Chihiro. I never visited you, or told you about any of this even though I knew it would happen."

Standing up I pushed away the overwhelming feeling of hopelessness, I couldn't allow the monster to try to take advantage of me.

"I'm not sure sorry can cut it this time, Kohaku."

**Thanks for reading! Hope you liked it. :) Who do you want Chihiro to end up with: Luke, Kohaku, or Ukame(for those who like the bad guys. ;D)? Leave a review with your opinion, and I'm not necessarily going to have the couple the most people like, I'm just curious.**


	13. In Ukame's Clutches

**Thanks for the review ****BebePanda401, Selena Estella, Lov3DrunkPunky(twice!),GLaDOS-24601, and WritingKitty! **

**Everyone was in favor of Kohaku and Chihiro. I am too, so lucky for you thats who she'll end up with. :)**

Tearing my gaze away from Kohaku I looked at Lakari. Something seemed different about her than last time I saw her. Before she had been full of energy and excited to be fighting me. Now she just seemed calm and not so happy.

Lakari glared at me for looking at her. Her smirk came back but she still wasn't the same as before.

"Souzen would like to see you so unless you come along willingly she ordered me to kill Kohaku." Lakari pulled out a knife and held it against Kohaku's neck.

I looked directly at Lakari. "If it was that simple why did you bring the monster?"

"Just to be more persuasive, I'll let him rampage and kill everyone else if you don't come along."

Right now Lakari held all the cards, there was nothing I could do to ensure everyone else's safety. If I refused to come she would kill Kohaku and set the monster loose on the others. If I did go I still had no guarantee that she wouldn't do those things.

"Think faster," Lakari snapped at me, "he's getting restless."

She was right the monster was shifting around and making deep growling sounds.

I heard the trap door open up behind me and heard Saiomi's loud gasp. Done being patient the monster lunged at Saiomi before Lakari could stop it.

"Kaibutsu!"

Lakari's yell did nothing to stop the monster or even make it pause. You could hear the bones crunch as the thing bit into her arm.

"Saiomi!" Luke and I yelled at the same time.

Blood showered the ground. I tore my gaze away to look at Lakari who was frantically moving her hands into signs and muttering under her breath. I looked at the weapon I had grabbed and was dismayed to see that it was a bow with one arrow already in place.

When Kin had tested me with weapons I had been the worst at this one and I only had one shot this time. Saiomi cried out and I pushed away my thoguhts, I couldn't let Saiomi be killed, it was my fault she was involved in this.

Raising the bow I quickly took aim as fast and as best as I could. The arrow flew and hit it's mark, now it's attention was on me. Saiomi fell to the ground and Luke rushed over to her.

As Kaibutsu was getting ready to launch himself at me red glowing chains wrapped around him.

"Decide now Chihiro." Lakari ordered me as she struggled to keep Kaibutsu under control.

"I'll come as long as he goes away first."

"Fine, just remember do anything fishy and your friend here won't be around much longer."

Kaibutsu vanished and Lakari grabbed Kohaku again. Lakari held out her hand for me to grab onto and I walked towards her.

"Chihiro what are you doing!" Kin grabbed onto my arm and tried to stop me but she wasn't strong enough. I shook her hand off of my arm.

"Don't worry I'll be fine."

Before she could try to stop me again I grabbed Lakari's hand and we vanished.

"I did as you instructed master." Lakari bowed down to a girl who was standing in front of her.

"Very well, take the boy and put him back in his cell."

Lakari glanced at me in an almost guilty way. "But-"

"GO!" Souzen yelled. With one more glance at me Lakari grabbed Kohaku and quickly left the room.

"So your the little girl who is suposed to be able to stop all my plans?" Souzen walked around where I was standing in a circle.

"That's right Ukame."

Souzen stopped short for a second then resumed walking. "Very clever brat, but I should warn you, acting defiant will only make things worse for you."

Souzen stopped and studied me. "Hmm... so brat what should I do with you?"

I glared at Souzen, "aren't you suposed to be in charge?"

The slap I received burned my cheek.

"I warned you brat," Souzen sneered.

Losing my temper I began to yell, "it's not brat, it's Chihiro! Chihiro Ogino!" (That's suposed to be her actual last name btw.)

"What did you just say?" Souzen looked shocked.

"I said my name." I looked Souzen confused.

Souzen ignored me and began pacing. "Lakari!"

"Yes master?" Lakari appeared in the room.

"Take her to the dungeon. I'd like some time to think so make sure it stays quiet."

"Okay." Lakari grabbed me and pushed me towards the door.

I was still confused about what had happened, all I had said was my name? Why would that be so shocking?

**Thanks for reading! Just wanted to remind people that even though it says Souzen and Chihiro says Ukame just remember that Ukame is posesseing Souzen and Chihiro knows that. Also if you want a hint or want to make sure you'll understand why Ukame is shocked, read the last 2 or 3 sentences of Chapter 11, Hurt Feeling and Familar Faces.**


	14. Giving Up Kohaku

**Thanks for the review BebePanda401, GLaDOS-24601 and Taeniaea! :)**

I sat in my dungeon cell for hours. Time passed slowly and even though it had only been overnight it felt like days had gone by since I was so bored. The whole time I was worrying that Saiomi may have been killed or something else bad may have happened.

"Come." Lakari said as she suddenly appeared at the door of my cell. She had a way of always being quiet and surprising you when she suddenly showed up.

I followed her instructions and stood up.

We left the dungeons and went to the room Souzen was in.

"Sleep well?" Souzen asked with a smirk, referring to the uncomfortable bed I had to sleep in.

"Not as well as I had hoped." I replied annoyed.

Souzen looked at me curiously. " You know why I reacted strangely yesterday?"

"If I said yes could I get away from you?" I taunted.

Souzen let out a mirthless laugh. " Nope, and I'll tell you why. Did you know your grandmother once lived in this world?"

I nodded remembering my shock when I had first found out.

"I grew up as an orphan. The clan I lived with who manipulated people weren't my real family. Somehow I had never noticed the differences because I thought I was one of them because I had the same unusual powers. You might be able to imagine the shock when I found out I was just a poor abandoned boy who they had taken care of out of pity. That made me wonder who would be cruel enough to abandon me."

"Did you ever find out?" I asked growing uneasy under Souzen's gaze.

"Your grandmother." Souzen replied with a bitter edge in his voice. " The clan told me she was afraid of my powers so she abandoned her child and while she was pregnant with your mom fled to your pitiful world. "

Souzen's flashed with so much hatred it was scary. I could feel how angry Ukame was, and deep down inside he was more hurt than anything.

Why hadn't my grandmother mentioned this? It really wasn't fair to have so much be sprung on me so quickly.

"She made a mistake!" I defended my grandmother.

"I'm sure she did." Souzen scoffed. "Anyways that leaves us with a bit of a problem. What should I do about my own darling niece trying to stop me? "

I didn't speak as I waited to see what would happen.

"I guess I could spare your life since we're relatives and all, but it would come at a price."

"What price?" I asked even though I knew the answer.

"Kohaku's life. You came back to find him. You could care less what kind of havoc I wreaked among this world and the people you know in it as long as Kohaku was safe. Without Kohaku your life wouldn't have as much meaning to it. "

My knees shook. Ukame had hit a nerve. A very deep nerve. What if what he said was right? Would I not care about the others here if Kohaku was safe? I thought about Kin's smiling face and remembered the last time I had seen Yubaba, and how Kamaji had gotten me a job. Of course I cared about them, but would I save Kohaku over the lives of them and many others?

"What do you say?" I glanced at Souzen and felt pity for her. She had been trapped and controlled by someone evil for a long time. Her dream for peace made her too easily manipulated and Ukame thought he could do the same with me. He expected me to let him kill me or let him kill the others so Kohaku could live.

"Take Kohaku."

One... Two... Three... time never seemed to go slower than right now.

"No!" Lakari yelled at me shocking both me and Ukame. My thoughts about her were confirmed. Kohaku had told her the truth.

Lakari ran over and pushed past me and stood in front of Souzen.

"Don't do that! Please Souzen I know you can hear me! Fight him please, don't let him control you!" Tears streamed down her face as the stress of what she had been doing broke her down.

"Foolish girl. You think she can win against me." Souzen flung Lakari across the room into the wall, her head hit the wall with a loud smack.

I ran to Lakari as she tried to sit up. She looked dizzy and disoriented. "Please help Souzen. Please, you can tell she's there sometimes." Lakari pleaded with me.

"Don't talk like that you're fine you'll be able to help her." Lakari's breathing seemed harder than usual and her head was bleeding but I didn't think she would die.

Lakari gave me a small smile. I watched as the smile quickly faded to a look of horror. "Chihiro she's gone!"

I turned around, and indeed Ukame was gone. He was going to do what I had given him permisson to do. He was going to kill Kohaku.

Lakari shook her head violently. " I hope you have a plan. Come on." She stood up with a lot of effort. If I had been her I would still be on the floor seeing stars.

**It's been a while since I updated it! So I hope you like it! Please review! :)**


	15. About To Fight

**Thanks for the review ****GLaDOS-24601, dewdrop888( that's really close to some of the stuff thats gonna happen. ), and Selena Estella! :)**

I ran down the dungeon steps so fast that I kept skidding as the stairs changed direction. I stepped off of the last step and realized I didn't know what way to turn to find where Kohaku's cell was.

"Left." Lakari panted behind me like she had just read my mind.

We turned left and kept running.

Plan. I needed a plan, quickly, or we'd be in big trouble.

I rounded the corner so quickly I knocked into someone and fell backwards. Lakari fell over on top of me. Suddenly her weight was gone. Souzen had flung Lakari carelessly across the room again.

"Leave her alone." I told Ukame my voice full of venom.

Souzen paused with her hand on the latch to open Kohaku's cell.

"Fight me." I told Ukame, I couldn't stop the small tremble in my voice.

"Are you forgetting that you gave me permisson to kill Kohaku?" Ukame's words felt like a knife. He had purposely reminded me that I had been ready to sacrifice Kohaku.

Kohaku stood quietly and he almsot seemed unsure. "Stay out of this Chihiro. This world is more important than just my death."

Souzen smiled and opened the cell door. "That's one of the wisest things you've ever said boy."

This was it. Kohaku was going to die and I couldn't do anything about it. I was helpless. I'd never see him in his dragon form again. I wouldn't be able to ask him how he had been in all those years we hadn't seen eachother. I would never be able to ask him if he liked me. all that would never happen.

While I had been feeling sorry for myself Lakari had been busy. She slipped to stand next to me and I looked at her. Her head was still bleeding but not as bad, she was trembling. At first I thought that she was scared, but Lakari seemed to be fearless. She was trembling because the spell she was doing was too hard for her when she was injured.

"Lakari, stop you'll hurt yourself!" I went to grab her but she sidestepped me easily and silently.

Ukame was so concentrated on Kohaku that he didn't notice what was happening behind me. When Souzen went to grab hold of Kohaku a orange shield flared up and she pulled her hand back with a hiss.

Lakari wasn't giving up and I couldn't etiher. I thought of how sad I'd be if something happened to Kohaku, how angry I was that Ukame kept hurting Lakari, how I felt bad for Souzen being trapped in her own mind.

Heat rushed through my veins and my sword appeared in my hand.

"Fight me." I told Ukame, and this time my voice didn't tremble at all.

I realized I was at a disadvantage in the narrow dungeon halls but I doubted Ukame would let us fight outside where I would have more space to attack.

Lakari pulled Kohaku towards us and we vanished and reappeared outside. Just like earlier it seemed like she had read my mind.

Souzen appeared a second after us looking greatly annoyed.

"You sure you want to do this? It's just you and me, dragonboy doesn't have his powers right now." Ukame seemed like he was really giving me a chance to change my mind and let him kill Kohaku.

If he killed me he would still kill Kohaku and Lakari, but maybe this way maybe something good could come of prolonging their deaths with my own.

"I'm sure." I lifted my chin and raised my sword. Flames danced and burned around my sword and the sight comforted me. I would keep Lakari and Kohaku alive as long as I could. I looked back at them and saw Kohaku holding Lakari's head in his lap. She was breathing hard, the spells were a lot harder to do than she had let on.

I faced Souzen just in time to see a look of pain flash across her face and then disappear as quickly as it had come. She held her hand out and a sword like my own appeared. Except instead of flames around hers, she had wind blowing and swirling around it. Fire and wind. The two elements that make eachother stronger when put together.

We both ran at eachother and our swords hit against eachother with so much force it felt like I had been hit with a semi truck. I got pushed back a few inches and Souzen smirked like that was a sign of how our fight would turn out to be.

**Hope you liked it! :D**


	16. Not Giving Up

**Thanks for the review ****GroundedAngelJessa, and GLaDOS-24601! :) Enjoy! **

I fell to on the ground gasping for air. Never before had I been physcially pushed so hard. I stood back up even though every muscle in my body protesting.

"Why put off the inevitable Chihiro?" Souzen stood in front of me perfectly calm and relaxed. She didn't look as if she had been fighting the past 30 minutes. While I certainly looked the part.

Pushing my my hair out of my eyes I said nothing and just looked back at Souzen. Insteading of attacking me right away again Souzen paused. That regretful look flashed over her face again and then disappeared just like it had been since we began fighting.

Then it dawned on me. Souzen was trapped in her own mind but she still knew what was going on. She was trying to struggle against Ukame but she was too weak. If only I could do something to make Ukame lose his control while Souzen fought him for control.

I blocked the sword as it came straight for my face.

_Chihiro please save Ukame, you have to power to do so._ My grandmother's voice caused me to jump a little. How in the world was I suposed to save Ukame? I wanted to save him, I had no desire to kill him or even hurt him but I couldn't think of any other choice. He wouldn't listen to me, I had already tried talking and reasoning with him when we were fighting but he had ignored me completely.

Lakari's breathing started to get raspy sounding. I looked behind me to see how she was doing. Souzen took advantage of the opening I had presented and stabbed me with the sword.

I started to bleed from the cut in my side.

_Please don't be deep, please._

"Just give it up Chihiro you're not strong enough."

I coughed and tasted a mouthful of blood. " I can't... I love Lakari and Kohaku, and not just them I love everyone here so I'm going to fight for them. Without you here it was peaceful, that's what you had wanted right Souzen?"

This was my last idea to save everyone.

"What are you doing?" Souzen looked angry but I could hear a trace of panic in her voice.

Souzen took a step toward me then suddenly stopped as if she had hit some type of invisible brick wall.

"You're strong Souzen, stronger than him, you can take back control of your body. I believe in you."

Souzen's body crumpled to the ground. Standing next to her was a young man, he had black hair and dark gray eyes.

I ran over to Souzen and checked her pulse. She was pale and breathing shallowly, but she still had a pulse.

"You may of helped her regain control but your dying. None of your friends can help you, I won."

"I don't care if I die. For now my friends are alive and that's what matters. My grandmother still loved you. Even if you didn't know it she wants me to try to save you. She made a mistake Ukame. Can't you forgive her? Please?"

"Chihiro!"

_No, please not now. _

I closed my eyes dreading what I would see when I turned around. Behind me was Saiomi, Luke, and Kin.

A grin slowly spread across Ukame's face. "Oh look more friends of yours."

I saw his muscles tensing to move before he did it. I blocked the sword from hitting Kin with what little strength I still had.

"You guys need to leave. Now." I said the words through clenched teeth. Of course they just ignored me.

By now my side was numb and I was glad the pain was gone, but now instead of the pain I was feeling feverish and light headed.

Ukame backed up a step and I fell to my knees on the ground. I gritted my teeth and tried to clear my head by shaking it.

Sounds around me amplified then grew quiet. My vision came and went.

_You are the one who can save this world Chihiro, I know it, and deep down both you and Ukame know it too. _

The flames grew brighter as they danced around the sword even more. Since I had been using the sword I hadn't really taken a good look at it. Now I studied it. When I held the sword I didn't feel the flames burning me even though they were close to my hand and I should've felt the heat.

_Strange._

I heard fighting and looked up to see Ukame and Luke going at it. Luke was better with a sword than I was, but Ukame still had many years more of training.

"Chihiro are you okay?" Saiomi knelt down beside me and looked me in the eyes. Then she looked away from me and looked at my sword in surprise.

The flames had made their way to my hand and we crackling around it. It should have hurt a lot, but it didn't In fact it felt like a warm, pleasant sensation.

The numbness was replaced with pain that quickly faded away. I stood up with new energy.

"Ukame you haven't killed me yet."

Ukame hit Luke's sword so hard he dropped it accidently.

This time when he turned to fight me I could see the apprehension in his eyes. We ran at eachother and our swords clanged together. The wind and fire blazed together to cause a huge whirling mass of flames. This time as our swords hit he was the one to slide back a few inches, and I was the one who got to smirk.

**Sorry for the long wait! :( I'll try to be quicker next time!**


	17. Forgiveness

**Enjoy!**

Before Ukame hadn't really been fighting me. It had been a show and the whole time he was going easy on me and biding his time. This time he had no choice but to fight for real, otherwise he would've died.

"I've never had uncles you know. My mom was an only child besides you, and my dad just had two sisters. I'm glad I got to see you."

I dropped my sword on the ground and left it there. I dropped my arms to my side and stood there calmly. I knew that Ukame would probably choose to kill me on the spot but surprisingly, I wasn't scared. In the past few days I had learned a lot. There were lessons about life, friends, and love that I would never soon forget.

"If it somehow makes you feel better I'll let you kill me right now, right here."

"What are you doing?" I heard Luke hiss at me angrily.

I didn't expect Ukame's next action. He let out a sigh and dropped his sword.

"I never had a niece, it would be a pleasure to get to know you."

The words came out stiff and Ukame looked as if he felt awkward. I smiled and couldn't help but forgive for everything he had done. I walked over and hugged Ukame.

"Thank you," I whispered to him.

I looked over Ukame's shoulder to see Souzen begin to stir.

As if he knew what I was looking at Ukame pulled out of my embrace. He walked over to Lakari.

"Move dragonboy." He ordered Kohaku as he gently pulled Lakari off of Kohaku's lap and closer to him. Kohaku quietly did what he was told and got out of Ukame's way. He came to stand by me and put a hand on my shoulder. I shrugged it off. Six years of waiting for someone and never having them come left you with a grudge.

I walked over to Souzen and kneeled beside her. Her eyes fluttered open.

"Where's Lakari?"

"She fine," I assured her, " well she will be." I added as an afterthought.

Souzen smiled weakly. "Help me up?"

"Of course." I grabbed her arm and gently tugged her to her feet.

"I'll need to get some medicine for Lakari. Chihiro go inside and try to find two rooms Lakari didn't manage to destroy. Lakari and Souzen need to get some rest." Ukame gave me instructions.

Kin bounced to my side. "Here Souzen let me help you."

Kin took ahold of Souzen. Luke and Kohaku were glaring at eachother with their arms crossed.

"I'll come with you." Saiomi ran after me as I started to walk to the castle.

"Shouldn't you make sure your brother and Kohaku don't kill eachother?" I teased her.

Saiomi shrugged. "It might actually make life easier for you if they do."

**Sorry for the long time until I updated. Hope you liked it! End coming soon, I think I said that before but for real this time, it's almost over. Anyways I'll update whenever so please be patient! :D**


	18. Going Back Home

**Thanks for the review Sasha-chan xx1 :)**

That night I couldn't sleep due to feeling claustrophobic. On my left side Kohaku was sleeping peacefully next to me. On the right side Luke was doing likewise. Next to Luke was Saiomi and then next to her was Kin.

Ukame was staying up in a different room nearby to help Souzen and Lakari if they needed anything.

After turning over for what must have been the millionth time I finally had enough. I got up and cautiously made my way out of the room. Once I was past my sleeping friends I hurriedly made my way outside. I stood outside enjoying the cool breeze and looking up at the stars.

"Chihiro?"

I held back a sigh, what I really wanted after all this was some peace, but I guess it wasn't the right time for that.

"Oh hey Luke. I thought you were asleep?"

Luke came over to my side and stood by me.

"I was, but I heard you leave."

"Oh, I didn't mean to wake you."

Luke shook his head. "Doesn't matter."

I knew what would be coming and I had no choice but to wait for it to happen.

"Do you love Kohaku? Because if you do I will leave you alone."

And there it was.

I let out a long sigh and contemplated the answer. "After I got back from my adventure six years ago he was just a friend. Then four years ago he started to become more than a friend in my mind. I thought I would tell him my feelings when he came to visit like he promised but he never did."

"You still didn't answer my question." Luke pointed out.

"What I'm trying to say is I think I love him, but I don't know."

"If you think you love him than you probably do." Luke had a defeated look on his face. "I just want you to know that I will always be there for you when you need it."

"Thank you," I whispered.

Without another word Luke went back inside.

I sat down and put my head in my hands. Life was complicated.

-Time skip 1 week-

"Your uncle is coming over at 6 to take you and Saiomi to the mall, don't forget!" My mom called after me as I walked down the sidewalk to start heading to school.

"I won't forget!" I called back to her.

Ever since Ukame came home with me it was like he had always been here. My parents knew who he was right away, they would bring up memories about Ukame and me like he had always been here. It was awkward to pretend like we knew what they were talking about every time, but it was a lot easier than explaining what really happened.

Saiomi was waiting for me and the bottom of the driveway.

We began walking and talking. When were almost to the school Saiomi suddenly stopped.

Someone ran up to us out of breath. "Almost thought you forgot about me." He flashed Saiomi a smile and looked at me.

"What are you doing here?" I asked Kohaku.

"Well I moved here and I was wondering if you could show me around school?"

"Sure." I gave him no smile, he still hadn't explained why he never showed up.

"Crap, I just forgot I have a paragraph left to write for my Spanish essay. I'll meet you guys at school!" Quickly Saiomi ran off leaving both of us alone.

I glared at her from behind. "She doesn't even have Spanish!"

Kohaku laughed. I shot him a glaare and began walking again.

"Chihiro wait!"

He grabbed my hand and sparks shooted through me.

"I have no excuse for never coming to see you, I'm sorry, reallly I am." Kohaku looked at me with pleading eyes.

I felt my anger at him beginning to melt away.

Kohaku probably thought because I didn't respond I was still angry. He started to pull his hand off of mine but I tightened my grip.

"I forgive you."

"Really?" His eyes looked hopeful.

"Yes really."

Kohaku grinned and started to say something but I cut him off.

"But if you ever promise me something and break your promise I won't forgive you so quickly next time."

"Deal."

Still holding hands we finished our walk to school, and that began the rest of our life together.

**The end! Hope you liked it, thank you anyone who reviews or favorites it in the future, and everyone who has already done so. :D**


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